Nigeria, Dec. 19 -- Some legislative aides to federal lawmakers on Thursday staged a peaceful protest to demand unpaid allowances.

The aides positioned themselves in the complex, at the lobby between both chambers of the National Assembly, as they held up placards with inscriptions, "we are aides, not slaves", "it is a grievous sin to deny workers of their wages."

An aide to a Bayelsa lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Lawson Oviasoje, told journalists that the management of the national assembly has "refused to pay legislative aides for six months."

Even the few of them that have paid have been shortchanged, he said.

"We resumed work by June and most of us got [salaries] from August, September, the management deliberately dela...